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Got the Design? Now Get the Code

If you want your website to have an air of professionalism about it, you’re going to want some professionals to help you put it together.

A graphic artist can tell you which colors work best with one another and what sort of layout is most pleasing to the eye. A freelance writer (like myself) can put together some content that will jump out at the reader, captivating their interest and pulling them deeper into your site. A very critical component to the whole website creation process, though, is the coding. And this is where a service like that offered by XHTML/CSS (xhtmlslashcss.com) comes into play.

You Do the Design, We Do the Code

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. There are tons of way for you to attract attention to your new company, whether it be an Adwords campaign or a blog contest, but what better way to get over 6000 targeted readers than to order a ReviewMe on John Chow dot Com. There’s great exposure to be had, as well as a few useful tidbits to help you improve. In this way, Johnny and Steve have taken a very smart first step with their custom coding website.

Their service is actually very simple. You provide them with a website design of some kind — whether it was created by you or a professional graphic artist is another issue — and then they’ll interpret that visual representation into something the Internet can understand, so to speak, guaranteeing that it will have 100% valid XHTML and 100% valid CSS (hence the name of their site). This can be an excellent service for anyone who either can’t be bothered to code something themselves or don’t know how to. (I fall into the latter category.)

And the best part? The whole process is completed in just three days.

How Much Does This Cost?

Given the speedy turnaround and the promise that the code will be clean and easy-to-use (and hence easy to update and edit in the future), the starting price of $150 for the first page is fair. Additional pages are less and integration into WordPress comes in at $250.

To some people, this might sound like a lot of money, but think about this way. Instead of using a WordPress template that everyone has access to — check out the proliferation of MistyLook, probably thanks to the root of all evil — you can get a blog with a completely unique look. This helps a lot in terms of branding and individuality, and without some custom XHTML and CSS coding on your side, this just wouldn’t be possible.

On a side note, they do require pre-payment and will not begin working on the code until your payment has been received. XHTML/CSS accepts a variety of credit cards and other payment methods, so getting the money their way shouldn’t be an issue. There will obviously be some concerns about their legitimacy, however, and some potential customers may be turned off by this approach.

But It’s So Plain Looking

That was my first impression. They’re supposed to be offering a professional service — “We love coding and we love clean code.” — yet the associated website looks so boring and basic. Where’s the flashy sales pitch?

Well, there isn’t one and that might be one of their best selling points. Johnny and Steve (giving last names would add some professionalism and legitimacy to the site) promise clean code with no frills. The custom code will be simple and to the point, just like their website. It even says on the About page: “What? No Images? That’s right; we do code not design.” Their punctuation and capitalization may need some work, but you get the idea.

Shop Around, You’ll Be Back

XHTML/CSS is so confident in their abilities and their pricing that they provide you with direct links to their competitors. They encourage you to check out the other guy, because they’re certain that you’ll come back. Is this confidence or cockiness? Either way, they’ve got guts.

If you’re ready to give them a whirl, go ahead and get started by sending them your website design (they accept all sorts of file formats, including PNG, PSD, JPG, and AI). Let us know if all this clean code hullabaloo is for real.

I agree with Austin on this front. Believe me, it’s the same thing with freelance writing. There are so many outsourcing agencies that hire writers from Dubai, Pakistan, India, etc. and these guys are willing to write articles for $1 a pop.

I wouldn’t mind shelling out a lot of money if I KNEW what I was getting for it exactly. If it’s all just talk and up-in-the-air ideas, it would be difficult to convince potential clients about their pre-payment policy.

I posted recently about how hard it is to strike the right balance when deciding what to charge for a global service like this. Outsourcing is a real problem for those of us who live in developed countries with a fairly high cost of living, or in my case extortinate cost of living, I think the lads are just about right with their pricing.

Pro bono, is a Latin phrase meaning “for the good”, it is sometimes stated as pro bono publico, for the good of the public. It is a term used to designate legal or other professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment, as a public service.

Funny part about this company is Tyler Cruz did a Review Me for them, and they had 3 of their 5 or so pages not contain valid XHTML. Hard to tell people you can code in valid XHTML when your sites aren’t even coded that way.

I also agree with the design. I know it says they do not do design, but come on, pay someone to do it.

I used them a few weeks ago and they did a great work for me. It wasn’t too complicated that design but they delivered it in 2-3 hours and the code was great too. I was very satsified. I really recommend them 😉

This is a very debatable thing. I do professiona custom designed websites (very few templated jobs..) and I prefer to do everything on my own.

However, if it can save me a lot of time, $150 isn’t that bad, as long as they can do a proper job of it. Once that’s laid out, I’d use PHP to cut it up into header footer body and then do the rest of the pages on my own.

"How I Went From Zero to Over $100,000 a Month"

The Original Dot Com Mogul

John Chow, a damn fine person, friend of the community, Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, member of the Save the Whales Foundation, the man who controls the black market on baby seal pelts and member of the probably yo’ daddy foundation...

John Chow rocketed onto the blogging scene when he showed the income power of blogging by taking his blog from making zero to over $40,000 per month in just two years.